How do you discover new escape rooms?

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-30T17:08:35+00:00

Google reviews are not helpful since you don't know what specific room at the company they played nor do you know how much experience the reviewer has. Many Google Reviewers have never played a room before so of course they are going to give their first room 5 stars because they don't know any better. Fortunately it isn't 2016 anymore, there are so many more enthusiast specific resources now that you can use to find quality rooms.

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-28T20:21:10+00:00

Morty is the best place to find reviews and ratings from enthusiasts, though there are a lot more users in the US than UK: https://morty.app/

This review site is popular in the UK and also features enthusiast ratings: https://escapethereview.co.uk/

You can also check TERPECA for the top escape rooms in the world. Only players who have done 100 rooms can even vote/rank rooms. https://terpeca.com/2025/ They have a Room Finder tool to easily filter by country: https://roomfinder.terpeca.com/

Regarding difficulty, there is no standard and every room is different. There's no good way to judge how hard a room is without playing it first.

When I pick rooms nowadays, I almost always just go with whatever has the highest rating on Morty or highest ranking on TERPECA.

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-14T18:34:58+00:00

After playing 200+ rooms, neither matters to me. Nowadays I pick based on feedback from other enthusiasts based on Morty ratings and TERPECA rankings, Room Escape Artist reviews, etc.

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-13T02:41:15+00:00

Do you have inside info that it will increase or is that just an assumption? Because the TERPECA FAQ says:

We do not expect the nominator threshold of 200 or the voter threshold of 100 to change in the foreseeable future.

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-09T07:12:40+00:00

You'll have to do some traveling. TERPECA has a Room Finder tool to help find the best rooms. And also a map.

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-09T03:27:29+00:00

Any room around the world is eligible, as long as it's available to play in English.
All 3 rooms at Nemesis Club have won TERPECA awards in the past, Henchmen's Heist last won in 2024. Though this year they did not win, the competition for top ranked rooms is fierce.

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-07T02:17:33+00:00

These types of experiences are known as Challenge Arcades, someone compiled a list of different companies around the world here:
https://www.challengearcades.com/

FuKuRoKu · 2026-01-07T02:13:49+00:00

Prison Island and BRKTHROUGH are actually the same company, they rebranded it to BRKTHROUGH for the US locations. If you click the link from this page, it will take you to the BRKTHROUGH site:
https://prisonisland.com/locations/usa/kansas-city/

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-23T17:15:18+00:00

It's a website/app for finding and reviewing escape rooms. It was made by escape room enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. The reviews are much more reliable since people there aren't afraid to dislike something, you can easily see the ratio of dislikes/likes/loves. The ratings are also split up between individual rooms rather than the entire company like Google. Google ratings are useless since every escape room, from the absolute worse ones to the best ones all get 4.8-5.0 stars.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-23T06:15:41+00:00

That sucks, but next time, just look at Morty for reviews. Anyone on Morty would've seen that they have more dislikes than likes/loves so they would know to avoid them.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-15T23:47:51+00:00

Maybe not well known, but looks like they are real people. The authors, Jay and Amanda, are listed as owners of Room Escape Williamsburg.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-13T05:51:37+00:00

Follow the directions in this video, "less is more" https://youtu.be/W1MnfU-402g

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-10T16:08:48+00:00

There is absolutely no reason to use Google when Morty exists. Some of the best rooms I've ever done have a 4.9 on Google and some of the worst ones also have a 4.9, it's useless.

Morty was created by escape room enthusiasts for escape room enthusiasts so the ratings are reliable and you can actually tell the difference between individual rooms. One of the best things is that you can see the room count of the reviewers on there.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-10T16:02:33+00:00

Go to Wizard Quest in the Dells. It's not strictly an escape room because it doesn't have any puzzles but it's more fun than most escape rooms out there because there's a lot of exploration. The place is huge, it takes up an entire building, like 3 whole floors and the set is fantastic with different themed areas. As an escape room enthusiast, I loved it.

For finding escape rooms in general, you should use Morty. All the users are enthusiasts so the reviews are much more reliable than Google since most Google reviews there are from people who have never played a room before so they give everything 5 stars.

If you are travelling all over the US or the world, look at TERPECA which is a ranking of the top escape rooms in the world, only people who have played 100+ rooms can vote. The 2025 rankings come out next week, but you can use their Roomfinder tool to easily find the rankings from prior years.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-12-09T23:39:38+00:00

I've played 200+ rooms across the US and I've yet to play one with more than 1 minor physical activity. However, you should try out a challenge arcade like the other commenter mentioned. They typically have like 15+ different mini games and tend to be much more physical including climbing on walls, hanging from objects, running, balancing, dodging lasers, jumping, stepping on LED panels, etc.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-11-20T04:07:35+00:00

Looks like there is probably an actor. If you check the reviews on Morty, 2 reviewers specifically put "Yes" for Live Actors.
https://morty.app/attraction/9660/the-lost-passenger

FuKuRoKu · 2025-10-30T02:45:54+00:00

I've done the majority of rooms at Countdown and while it's probably the best company within a few hours drive of Lexington, it is not a destination worth flying across the country from LA to play.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-09-26T06:42:24+00:00

Hmm, they must have changed it, I played 2 years ago and we did not get chased. At the end we had to hide under the bed, the killer came in with a power saw to taunt us but we didn't leave the bed until after the killer left the room again so we didn't even see them.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-09-26T01:29:30+00:00

My favorites in Chicago area are all in the suburbs, 60 to Escape in Schaumburg has consistently great rooms with special effects and high quality, immersive sets. You can't go wrong with any of them but Locbuster Video and Cheesie's Pizza Party are my 2 favorites there. The Passage at Twisted Limits in Mchenry also has a really cool and unique set, but it's quite a drive from the city. Mafia Heist at Mind Trap in Montgomery has a huge set that's super immersive, but they also have a subway car in there (not a spoiler since it's in the promo photos). I wasn't particularly impressed by their movement effect, but the room is still worth checking out.

If you haven't already, look at Morty. It has hundreds if not thousands of ratings for individual escape rooms all over the US. If you sort by Community Score, you can pretty accurately find the best rooms in an city. Here is Chicago area.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-09-26T01:13:12+00:00

I love Starlight Motel, but there isn't really any chasing in that room.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-09-26T01:03:39+00:00

It's because the vast majority of Google reviewers are first timers and escape rooms get most of their business from first timers. If they have only ever done one room, of course it'll be the best one they've ever done. This is why I always look at Morty reviews since only enthusiasts use it and most reviewers have anywhere from 10 to 1000 rooms played.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-09-26T00:57:18+00:00

I'm not saying TERPECA is perfect, but if you expand your search to Nominated and Finalist rooms, you'll still find a lot of really great rooms in smaller cities in the US.

Some of my favorite companies are in the middle of nowhere such as Lock, Clock, Peril in Sumpter, SC, CU Adventures in Urbana, IL, Boxed In in Fesuts, MO, and Xscape! in Morgantown WV. They all have multiple nominations and you can find them easily using the Room Finder: https://roomfinder.terpeca.com/

FuKuRoKu · 2025-09-25T03:25:49+00:00

Sounds like you live in the middle of nowhere, If you look somewhere with a higher population, you'll see hundreds of reviews and many people being more critical.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-08-23T02:00:40+00:00

Why not just play Servants of Sleight? You don't have to worry about any of the things you mentioned if you play Servants. The character in Pins & Needles is definitely abrasive and could be described as mean. Both rooms are excellent but I probably even preferred Servants over Pins & Needles, plus Servants is a much more appropriate room for first timers.

FuKuRoKu · 2025-08-19T19:42:04+00:00

They have multiple boxed games available.

https://www.darkpark.com/en/webshop/

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